In this day and age, a lot of coaching hires in the NFL are first-time head coaches. Take Brandon Staley of the Los Angeles Chargers, for example. Staley had no previous head coaching experience in the NFL and was the defensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams prior to his hiring.
The same thing applies to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. Sirianni came over from the Chargers, actually, and in his first season helped the Eagles make the playoffs.
The 41-year-old learned a lot about being a head coach last season. And he recently opened up about the differences between being a coordinator and running the show yourself.
Showing Emotion
Sirianni wears his emotions on his sleeve. He can be very animated and passionate during the course of a game. In a market such as Philadelphia, that works very well.
However, the 41-year-old told NJ.com that he had to learn to scale it back a bit. The last thing he wanted to do was become a distraction in any way.
“People need me to give them attention (and) they are also looking to me in the sense of how I’m handling the ups and downs of a game, the ups and downs of a season,” Sirianni said last month
Leading By Example
Sirianni wants to lead by example. He wants his players to look at him and be assured that he has things under control.
He likened his desired style to that of now-retired Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright. He talked about experiencing it in person at a game last season.
“And then you could kind of see that his players were starting to look to him, and when he (looked back), he calmed down," Sirianni said. "I distinctly remember one of his players looking at him, and (Wright) was like, ‘Hey,’ (hand-clap) and he made his coaching point to his players. And he was still pissed, I could tell. And then the player stopped what he was doing with the ref, and then continued on with the play.
“And I was like, ‘What a great example for me.’”
Being In Charge
Sirianni mentioned needing to be visually in charge. It was all about projecting a sense of knowing what's going on, and how it needs to be handled.
The 41-year-old mentioned that some of his players do monitor his expression sometimes. He specifically mentioned tight end Dallas Goedert as someone who does it often.
“I find myself there going, ‘Hey, Dallas, I got it, I promise you I got it.’ … I don’t want them thinking about that. And that’s the emotions of the game. I get it, too. It’s not just because (if) I stop, they’re going to stop. But I definitely know I’ve got to be better at that, and I saw some examples of why I need to be better at it this offseason,” Sirianni said.
Attention Is Key
The difference between the coordinator and head coach, Sirianni learned, dealt with attention. He didn't need to give as much attention to everyone as a coordinator, but now he needs to talk with everyone.
“As a coordinator, not everybody needed to be, like, talked to by me. But as a head coach I’m realizing more and more that everybody needs my attention. Attention goes a long way,” Sirianni said. “I think that’s a big thing I knew, but I’m definitely better at carving out the time to do those things.”
]]>The Inquisitr
